(AFP) – US President Donald Trump will meet on Friday with the special forces soldiers who captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a deadly raid in Caracas in January. First Lady Melania Trump will accompany her husband for the trip to greet the troops at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina, the White House said.
The stunning operation saw US forces swoop in by helicopter under cover of darkness and seize Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from a highly secured compound in the Venezuelan capital on January 3. Eighty-three people were killed and more than 112 people were injured in the assault, which began with US bombing raids on Venezuelan military targets, Venezuelan officials said. No US service members were killed.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and the first lady would “meet with military families and the heroic members of our special forces who carried out the successful ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’ in Venezuela and helped bring narco-terrorist Nicolas Maduro to justice.” Maduro is currently in detention in the United States facing charges of drug trafficking and other crimes, to which he has pleaded not guilty. His next court hearing is scheduled for March 17 in New York.
Trump approved former vice president Delcy Rodriguez to replace her deposed boss Maduro on the condition that she comply with his demands on access to oil and on easing state repression. The US president has repeatedly hailed the Maduro operation as an example of his country’s military might as he asserts Washington’s right to dominate its backyard.
In a rally in Iowa in January, Trump hailed the “spectacular” operation by a “group of unbelievable talented patriotic people that love our country. You couldn’t hold them back.” Trump has also spoken about a secret weapon he dubbed the “discombobulator” that was used to disable Venezuelan equipment — and potentially personnel.
“I’m not allowed to talk about it,” Trump said in an interview last week with NBC News. “But let me just tell you, you know what it does? None of their equipment works, that’s what it does. Everything was discombobulated.” – Danny KEMP
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